The Protector
by mytraitorousheart
Summary: In the streets of New Orleans, the supernatural entities reigned supreme, the humans merely food in order to dispel their cravings until a phantom vampire appears saving young girls who fall prey to the creatures of the night. Klaus in an effort to control all areas of his kingdom searches for the woman protecting the humans and is shocked at what he finds. Three-shot.


_**A/N: Yes I know, don't kill me for starting another story, this is just a three shot. Written for my friend Brynne (elijahsmanhood), I actually just wanted to write her a short drabble and 5k later I finished part 1. So here be it.**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing except some chocolate wrappers at the bottom of my bag.**_

* * *

Her name lived only in whispers. A secret. A weapon. A bargaining chip. Those who knew about her did not dare mention it in fear of their lives; those that were foolish enough to utter it had their silence coerced when their tongues were removed. He was a merciless man and he did not take chances. Especially with her. No one was to know, to the world he would appear harsh, hard with no weaknesses whilst in the privacy of his quarters, in the deep chambers of his heart, she would reign supreme.

* * *

"At the end of the alley, that's the last place I could trace her to," Davina's voice echoed through the alleyway, her straight face not letting out any clue as to whether she knew more than she was letting on. Klaus nodded. The girl had been acting strange since the death of Celeste and the other witches had caused her resurrection but as they had been the ones to return her to the living world she was indebted to them and had continued to help them despite her original misgivings.

As they ventured deeper into the alleyway and the shadows fell, Davina gasped. The fresh body at her feet barely resembling the vampire that had joined their service just three months previously.

"My god," Marcel murmured, "Look what the bitch did to Arnaud, Klaus we need to stop her." Marcel knelt down beside the vampire's body and continued to inspect him as Klaus observed the scene around him.

"This blood," Davina said as she took a swipe off the ashen walls, "It's fresh but it does not belong to Arnaud."

"He was probably feeding," Klaus contributed, "And she interfered in a last minute attempt to save his victim, there is a reason they call her _Le protecteur_, she saves the humans."

"Which is one more reason why we need to get rid of her," Marcel responded, rising to his feet and picking up Arnaud's body, "We can't have her providing charity services for our food."

"It amazes me how she has eluded us for so long, the minute we get wind of her she disappears" Klaus mused.

"Well she is a superhero, according to the humans, they have that ability to slink into the shadows," Marcel commented.

Klaus chuckled, "You and I both know, mate, that there are no such things as superheroes, simply supernatural entities with guilty consciences. I will guess she is a vampire from the bite marks on her victims, but she has to be a daywalker as many of her activities has taken place during the day. She knows enough about us to disguise her scent so that us or the wolves would not be able to find her. The way that she disposed with Arnaud and our other fellow comrades indicate that she has had plenty of experience with other vampires, so if she is not one of your scorned daywalkers she has come from another grouping. The only reason that we know that she is female was from one of the young ladies that she saved but because she wears a hood we do not know the color of her hair or any other distinguishing characteristics. In order to stop her, we need to predict her movements and be one step ahead of her."

"So you have a rogue phantom in your kingdom, what we going to do about it?" Marcel asked.

"She only saves young girls," Davina said, once again in that deadpan tone, "Perhaps if you put one in danger, you might be able to trap her."

Klaus narrowed his eyes at Davina, what was the witch playing at? Surely she would not want to help them stop the saving of innocent humans.

Interpreting his expression, Davina shrugged, "I'm curious."

* * *

**_One week later_**

All the reports of her 'savings' say that they happened in and around the French Quarter and as Davina walked that familiar path, she had a strange feeling as if someone was watching her. She smiled as she saw Marcel come towards her, she would not have trusted any other vampire with this. She knew their nature, she saw them in their element and knew how difficult it was for them to stop once they had started. But Marcel was different, he was careful and smart and he cared for her.

She stood on the corner, pretending to text her non-existent friends, as Marcel stalked around the corner before grabbing her. She barely had time to scream before he dragged her into the nearest alleyway, and attacked her neck. She was there in seconds; Davina's scream was like a summoning to her

She flew in the alley, as graceful as a bird, but the strength with which she attacked Marcel was anything but graceful. Marcel fought back, his age and experience coming into play as he easily knocked her up against the wall and Davina got a good look at her. She wore dark clothes, a hooded sweatshirt and heavy army boots, she was not dressed as a hero or an angel, she was dressed as a worker, as someone who was doing a duty, a job. The hood that she wore largely obscured her face but Davina saw a stray curl of blonde hair escape. Davina cocked her head to the side, it was curious that this woman was so determined to hide her identity, it did not seem like she feared the other vampires. Why then did it matter if they knew who she was if she could simply escape from them over and over again?

As she knocked Marcel's head against the trashcan, Klaus appeared at the end of the alleyway, using his vampire speed to cause her to lose balance, he gripped her by the neck, the force of the attack causing her hood to fall off her head and her blonde tresses to come loose.

Davina took in a sharp breath. _Le protecteur_ was beautiful. She was young, not much older than her, and her beauty must have floored Klaus too because he froze before lowering her onto the ground slowly. It was odd because not much surprised Klaus, for a reactive and passionate man he usually tended to be constantly ahead of everyone else, but he was staring at _Le protecteur_ as if she was a ghost.

Davina moved closer just as she heard him whisper, "Caroline?"

* * *

**_6 months earlier_**

She stood in front of the dirty mirror in the bathroom of the cheap motel room that she was staying at. The toothbrush clutched firmly in her fist as it moved in a circular motion up and down, harder and harder against her teeth until her gums bled and her vampiric nature caused it to heal again.

She could still taste Amy's blood on her tongue. Eight hours and the addictive juice had seeped into crevices of her mouth, leaving a delicious iron taste in its wake. Each time she moved to do something else she had that familiar feeling again as if something was stuck in her teeth. A piece of skin, some flesh, something that she had not retrieved the last time that she brushed her teeth and she would repeat the routine again.

Tears streamed down her face, she had it all under control, every last bit of her actions, until she no longer knew what she was doing and where her limits ended. Blood is her weakness, blood is her constant craving and when she saw that girl, near death, waiting for a savior, waiting for someone to help heal her, she could not stop herself for going in for the kill. She was already half dead you see. And it had been so long, oh so very long, since she had tasted warmth of blood of the vein, heard a pulse slow down, and felt the adrenaline that came with embracing her true nature.

It was supposed to be a onetime thing, no one was to know. The attack would be blamed on an animal or some vicious murderer like the one who had left her for dead, and Caroline would move on. Force herself to forget, trick herself into thinking that what she did was for the girl's benefit, she took away her pain, the memories of her terrible ordeal would never haunt her. You see, Caroline knew what it was like to be a victim and would continue to remember it every day for eternity.

She had sufficiently talked herself into her excuses when two hours later Luke came clambering into her room. Elena and Bonnie were off trying to feel needed in Mystic Falls and she was trying to focus on her Theatre 101 revision. Luke launched himself on her, sobbing uncontrollably, it was a long period of time before she could coerce him to tell her what happened.

"It's Amy," he said between sobs, "She's been killed, they say it was an animal attack."

Caroline's blood ran cold. Animal attack. She had those words placed together many times over the past couple of years, even more recently with the death of Megan. Could the Augustine Society be up and running again? Was Damon or Enzo on campus? The vampire population had grown so much that there were so many options as to who was responsible for Amy's death.

Caroline had never met Amy. She knew of her from her recent friendship with Amy's older brother, Luke, who also happened to be the TA in Caroline's drama class. She knew that Amy was a freshman like her, but she was a business major. She knew that Amy had dark hair, that she had an odd obsession with Star Trek and that when her father left their family she cried for four days straight. But most of all, she knew that Luke adored her and made it his life's mission to always take care of her, in a way that their father was unable to and now she was gone. And Luke was devastated.

It was only when she attended Amy's memorial that the truth dawned on her. She studied the picture above the casket thoroughly and only then did she realize that she had seen that face before, lying on a pavement as she lowered her face down to tear into her carotid artery and finish the job.

She rushed out of the church, half expecting lightning to come down from the sky and strike her down for even entering a sacred place after what she did. She sent Luke a hurried apology text, saying that there was an emergency at home that she had to attend to, knowing that she would never be able to be in the same room as him again after what she did. She returned to her dorm room, her body moving in a mechanical fashion, not showing any emotions or reactions, she simply packed up her essentials and made her way to the nearest bus stop. She had to leave, she could not look back, because if she did she felt that just like Lot's wife she would be turned into a pillar of salt, cemented in that place unable to run or move on.

But where would she go? The obvious answer was back to Mystic Falls but she knew that she needed to be alone, away from the threats and drama that came with the territory in what appeared to be the supernatural capital of the world. She also knew that she had to come to terms with what she did, because surely her friends would brush it aside, expect her to move on and help them defeat whoever was the big bad that week. Stefan would say some comforting words, assure her that they all had their weak moments, Elena would give her a sympathetic smile, Bonnie would avoid the issue, her eyes silently judging and Damon would enjoy her unhappiness far too much. No, she needed to get away, to learn how to take responsibility for her own actions, to repent, to heal and living under the excuses that her friends so easily dished out would not help her at all.

But yet, with all her confidence and growth, she simply was not strong enough to go to a place where everyone was a stranger, where she could not go for support and help when she needed it. Her mind brought up two options: Washington where her father's former partner Stephen lived or Texas with her aunt. Both options were invaluable because that would be the first places her mother would look for her and she would call in Stefan or one of her other friends to bring her home. No, she needed a clean break, which was what she kept on repeating to herself as she sent the farewell messages to her mom and her friends, got rid of her phone and made her way to New Orleans.

She did not know what to expect when she got there. If she believed Mystic Falls was the supernatural capital, it just proved how little she really knew. In New Orleans, the supernatural creatures ran wild and everyone gave into their deepest desires. It was an entirely different concept that she had to grasp, to live in a world where she did not have to be ashamed of what she is and she did not have to hide it.

Her first instinct was to go straight to him. The day in the forest when she toed the line between black and white and shaded it to make grey, she had not realized that every time he kissed her, every time they made love, every time he looked at her with those eyes full of hope and understanding, he was slowly erasing the line from her mind. On the days after the incident, she made her necessary apologies but her heart was long gone, not a day went by when she did not think of him, of that day, and when they would be reunited.

He promised her that he would never return, that he would never seek her out and as much as that was what she wanted, not to have to face her feelings for him, not to feel ashamed, it pained her a bit to see how easy it was for him to do, that he was able to walk away when her heart was still very much present in that forest. That day changed everything. It changed the way she saw him, the way she saw herself, and what she ultimately wanted for her life.

You see dreams are goals with fairy dust, and her goals were predetermined long before she became a vampire. She would go to college, get a degree, marry a nice man, move into a home in the suburbs and have 2.5 children. When she became a vampire she knew that she had to adapt her goals to make them fit better into her new life. Her dreams of marriage and children fell away and instead she dreamt of companionship with Tyler and traveling. And then after her breakup with Tyler, she dreamt of adventure, of having limitless fun, of studying everything that she was ever interested in and finding love on every continent. But right after that day in the woods, Klaus steamrolled over all of her dreams until all she wanted was him, yes she still wanted adventure and travels and studies but she wanted it with him. As much as it pained her to admit, that taste in the woods of being with someone who truly loved and worshipped her opened up a new hunger, which she constantly craved.

She had heard about Hayley from Tyler, in one of his vindictive moments, so eager to extract revenge on her after her shenanigans with Klaus. She felt hurt, confused and a bit pissed off but with a little sleuth work she discovered that Klaus' relationship with Hayley did not go further than the child, or the pregnancy and when the constant supernatural turmoil's caused her to lose the baby, it was Elijah's shoulder she cried on, not Klaus' (Damon proved quite the information gatherer, she had no idea who his sources were but it sounded legit).

So when she arrived in New Orleans it was not Hayley or the unborn child that caused her to retreat into shadows but another factor in the irony that was her life. It was a week after she arrived in New Orleans that she finally plucked up the courage to go to him. She half expected him to sense when she arrived in the city and send for her immediately, but he did not. Perhaps she was stealthier than she realized or perhaps he was just too busy but either way she went unnoticed as she spent her days in tears and her nights roaming the dusty streets of New Orleans.

When she was human she constantly felt as if Bonnie and Elena left her out, had their own little secrets and personal jokes while she was left to just 'figure things out on her own' but this had left her with good deduction skills, and so during the week she become strategic about who she spoke to, who she befriended, who she bumped into it. Her peppy cheerleader attitude helped her to make friends with different supernatural creatures who thought they were providing her with harmless information but each little bit helped her to puzzle together the big picture.

She learnt that Klaus had crafted a web of groupings, of loyalties, of confidantes and allies and the only way to get close to the original hybrid was to 'bump' into him at his local watering hole. This seemed easy enough for Caroline, she knew without a doubt that once he saw her he would bypass every security measure his silly kingdom had set up in order to be by her side, to wipe away her pain and to tell her it was okay to feel hurt over what she had done (even if he didn't believe it himself), but the sight that welcomed her as she crept into the bar was an image that would rip away all her hopes for a reconciliation.

Klaus sat at the bar, his mouth meeting a glass of scotch, he had an easy smile on his face, almost as if this was one of the few times that he was truly relaxed. She edged into a booth near the door and just watched for a moment his beautiful face without the contorted lines of worry and anger, just happy and content. He set his drink back onto the bar and called over the bartender, expecting to see a burly man with neck tattoos Caroline was surprised to see the bartender was actually a pretty blonde human seemingly in her twenties. Klaus said something to her, Caroline assumed he was asking for another drink, when the bartender laughed and reached for Klaus' hand across the bar. Caroline expected him to pull his hand away or to simply leer at her but instead he turned his hand around until their palms were facing and the look he gave her was one of affection as if they lived in a bubble and none of the other patrons in the bar existed.

At that moment she felt sick to her stomach. She could not believe how dumb she was, that she made such a grave mistake again. You see, Human Caroline tended to jump into relationships head first and then throw everything in - her body, her heart, her soul - but the lesson that Vampire Caroline learnt was that her body could heal, her mind could move on but the wounds in her heart and her soul took far too long to get back to normal. She learnt to case her heart away, protect it from overexposure, from pain. With Tyler she gave him her body and her mind and it took a while before he conquered her heart, earning the 'all-nighter' but their relationship was a constant stop-and-go and at times she didn't feel as if she was in relationship, like she was pledging commitment to some unseen god.

But with Klaus everything was a whirlwind, she attempted to give just her body to appease the craving that she had but with every caress, every smile, every kiss he weaseled his way further and further into her heart until every beating was for him. She straightened her stoic mask after the sixth round of lovemaking when he had to leave and she had to show her face at the Salvatore Mansion, but even then she knew deep down that she was no longer the same girl that had entered the woods searching for Matt.

But yet here she was again, watching as the object of her affections preferred another. She immediately began comparing herself to the other blonde woman, she was older, more experienced, probably more understanding. In that moment she realized that this was probably why it was so easy for Klaus to promise never to return, to walk away, because he wanted to get her out of his system, he wanted to clear the air because he had someone already waiting for him in New Orleans. It hurt. It hurt far more than when Jake Fell told her he only dated her because she was 'easy', he hurt more than when Damon told her she was 'worthless' or when Matt saw her as a monster and Tyler didn't see her as a priority. All of these heartbreaks made her into the strong woman she was, but she would not want to relive any of them and here Klaus was showing her that she still had not experienced true pain. The beautiful words, the promise of forever was all just a show so that he could conquer her and feel accomplished. But he succeeded, she felt just like a soldier who was left for dead on a battlefield that the victors had long since vacated.

That night she intended to leave the city right away so she made her way to her motel room, gathered up her belongings and checked out. Washington, Texas, Alaska, any place was better than leaving in a city with the knowledge than in one of those homes somebody else was in Klaus' arms, he was worshipping someone else's body with his hands, his lips, his eyes, someone else was now the center of his world. No, she needed to get as far away from him as possible, she did not want to be confronted with her own inadequacy whenever she walked down the street.

She was on her way to catch a late bus when she heard the scream. She turned around swiftly, it was a large city, crime was inevitable but what she saw made her uneasy. A tall, sandy blonde man was towering over a young brunette woman, she couldn't have been older than seventeen, the man's hand was over her mouth while his mouth was in her neck, shamelessly feeding from her as the tears poured down her face. In that moment Caroline saw Amy. She thought back to the decision that she made that evening to kill the girl instead of helping her. Fate had given her another chance, she might have made the wrong choice that night but now she could actually save another girl from a similar fate.

She used her vampire speed to rush to the aid of the young girl, yanking the vampire off her. He must have been newly turned, a new nightwalker in Klaus' ranks who was not taught to control his thirst, she tried to get him to stay away from the girl but his cocky nature did not work in his favor as he did not like being bested by a female. He kept on attacking Caroline until the only thing that she could do was to break a leg off a chair in a nearby dumpster and stake the insolent creep. The victim was barely conscious when Caroline fed her blood and as Caroline compelled some story for her, and she nodded, Caroline pulled her back and asked her her name. "Sarah," she whispered as she walked back into the night.

That evening Caroline returned to her motel room, and began a list of her own. Ripper Stefan had his list of victims and she countered that with her list of people that she saved while she was in New Orleans. The city was a supernatural hotspot but it also allowed them to be careless, to kill, to injure, to destroy and that was how she found her purpose. There was no one with supernatural strength fighting for the humans and that was the role that she was going to fill. Letting girls, like Amy should have, grow up, return to their families, live out their dreams and have the fulfilling life that she would never know.

* * *

**_Present day_**

"What are you doing here?" His voice still a whisper as he continued to stare at her dumbstruck.

"In this alley?" She laughed humorlessly, "Well I'm saving this innocent girl from the big bad vampire and it seems like his evil hybrid master too."

"No, I meant here, in New Orleans."

She rolled her eyes. "Well I came here for you, but when I saw you had moved on, I found a place for myself in your kingdom. a need, a purpose. And while I know I am going against your code, killing without your permission. I only kill when it is absolutely necessary, when the vampire is attempting to kill the victim or he or she refuses to give up once I have intervened. I hope that perhaps we can work on some sort of deal, I don't mean to undermine your position but I believe my role is crucial."

Klaus was taken aback by her business-like tone, it was as if they did not know each other, like they did not have a history, she was just another fearful member of his city begging for mercy. Did she not know that she was the exception?

Klaus sighed before saying, "Marcel and Davina, you may leave." The twosome looked at him curiously before obeying his order and vacating the area.

Caroline stared after them pensively, "Oh so this was all just a show in order to catch me, good job Klaus, I need to be more vigilant in the future."

Klaus growled, "There will be no more future run ins, you're coming home with me now."

Caroline recoiled, "Please don't treat me like I'm some abandoned puppy in need of a home. I've been taking care of myself for six months. Just tell me when and where my disciplinary hearing or council or whatever you do with those that misbehave in your kingdom will be."

"Caroline," he pleaded with her, "Please, just let us just talk."

"Why?" She asked, "I won't tell your little bartender about our forest rendezvous if that's what you are worried about. I've long since given up hope on this." She gestured between the two of them.

Klaus' eyes widened, "Caroline, it isn't how it seems."

"Then how is it? You didn't pursue me only to have sex with me and then move on to your next little blonde fling. All those flowery words and promises of forever were just empty gongs!" She was shouting, unleashing all the pent up rage that was inside of her since she spotted him in that bar that night, even though she told herself that she was a grown up now, no more childish temper tantrums because of jealousy.

"Don't forget," he hissed at her, "You are the one who told me to leave and never come back. Your words told a totally different story. What am I supposed to believe Caroline? One moment you're spurring out hate at me, they next you are kissing me as if you had been thirsting for my taste all your life, then you expect me to walk away as if nothing happened."

"Like that was so hard to do!" She spat at him, "You had Girl Number 2 all warmed up and ready when you came back."

"You didn't want me!" He exclaimed, "What was I supposed to do?"

"Oh I don't know? Have some continuity? Don't pretend I'm something special and then after fucking me give up!"

He closed his eyes slowly, "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't cheapen what we had to fucking."

She laughed humorlessly again, "Oh Klaus, you already did that when moved on so fast. That's how I felt. Fucked over. Royally fucked. By the king himself."

She turned away from him again, "Anyway, I'm exhausted after this theatrical performance and our little reunion. If you need to notify me to talk about deals we need to make, you can find me at room 41 at Crescent Palms Motel."

He grabbed her hand, lightly tugging on it, the feel of her soft skin beneath his hand bringing too many memories to the surface. "Caroline," he pleaded with her, "please."

She glanced back at him, he eyes revealing a sadness and regret which her previous defiant nature didn't not allow her to show, she shook her head slowly before speeding into the night.

* * *

Klaus stood in the alleyway longer than was necessary, staring that the spot that she had just vacated. He knew that if Marcel and Davina were not with him he would have thought it was a dream. That she, the woman who kept within the palm of small hand with the peach-painted nails his heart, his purpose, and his life. Every day, every night, he dreamt of her coming to him, no matter how unlikely it seemed. He lived a thousand years without putting too much hope or faith in people, but that evening in that teenage girl's bedroom, in the middle of a small town, he learnt what it is like to have hope beyond reasonable doubt.

That day in the forest he told her that he would never return, that he would never bother her or attempt to charm her again. It was a promise to her to give her peace of mind, but it was also a promise to him to will himself to fall out of love with her. To accept what the fates had thrown at him and to move on. But he couldn't.

You see when he entered those woods; he expected nothing more than a simple confession, just Caroline saying that she felt some sort of attraction to him that she was not oblivious to him, but what he received was far more than what he bargained for. Her lips against his were indescribable. Over the ten centuries that he walked the earth he had kissed many women, women with experience, women who were well trained in the arts of pleasuring men. But it was this one particular teenage girl, newly turned vampire, from the middle of a small town, who elicited so much emotion from him, which the courtesans and queens of the world could only envy.

When she allowed him to make love to her he was certain that it was a dream, the most sensational dream he had ever had and god have mercy on the man that dared to wake him. It was the most real and unguarded he had ever seen her, it was her reprieve from her straight-laced life and he was willing to take what he could get. The way she moaned his name, the way she held onto his hair as if it was a lifeline, the way she wrapped her legs around him pushing him in further into a tight sheath. Oh, that night haunted him.

There was a dull ache in his gut every time he remembered that night and the pure happiness that he felt for the first time in his life. Every good moment in his life was marred by pain and sadness and this no exception. How was he supposed to fulfill his promise, to leave and never return when she opened that window and bared herself physically and emotionally to him? How was he supposed to come back from that? He knew from then on that everything else in his life would pale in comparison to that utopia that they created amongst those trees in the middle of a small town that day.

That ache returned when the hood fell and he saw her face again. He did not think of scenarios or reasons why she would be in New Orleans, childishly, he thought that she appeared there simply because he willed her there. In every situation he searched for Caroline. He would search for her as long as he is cursed to walk the earth.

But here she was the entire time, breathing the same air as him, her feet tracing the same roads that he walked everyday, her hands grazing the same walls, and he had no idea that the person his mind was searching for and the one his heart was searching for was one and the same. But yet she said she came to New Orleans for him, even though he knew there must have been something deeper behind it, a reason why she did not leave and return to Mystic Falls when her original plans failed, a reason why she was obsessed with helping the human girls, a reason why she appeared fidgety and cut off.

She was not the same Caroline that he left in the woods that day, her light, her beauty, her passion was there, but there was a dark cloud hanging over her, and he knew in that moment that he would use all that he had in his arsenal to win her over, so that she should claim her place at his side and he would peel away the darkness that was eating at her.

The search was over, it was time for the conquest to begin.

* * *

**_A/N: I've been busy with this for at least a month, and I've been extremely nervous about publishing it because it is very different from the fluff that I usually write, so if you have a minute please let me know what you think._**

**_I know Klaus didn't address the Camille situation in his little soliloquy at the end but it will be spoken about in the next part, right then he just had Caroline on the brain. _**

**_This story came about when I spoke to Brynne about ways I want Caroline to be introduced in TO and this was borrowed in part from the Black Canary's introduction in Arrow and I liked the idea of Caroline saving others because she was always protecting everyone in MF like Elena, her parents, Bonnie's mom, Stefan and I think it's a role that would come naturally to her. It also gives her a purpose other than being a romantic interest, which is what her character needs terribly._**

**_Anyways enough rambling, if you want to hit me up on Tumblr you can find me at queenblairstiara._**

**_xoxo_**


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